A reflection on Behavior Design

My reflection on designing Textie for CS 247B: Design for Behavior Change

Thoughts before taking this class

Behavior Design? Never heard of her. Despite having taken a number of CS 247 courses, the idea of designing for behavior change was not on top of mind. Perhaps this particular design approach was always there, but I never approached problems from that sense. When we were first introduced to the project, my first instinct with behavior change was to look at obvious ones such as minimizing phone usage. However, our project went far deeper than the obvious, and asked thought-provoking questions related to the way that we engage with our loved ones over text.

What we got into…

The results of our baseline intervention studies and interventions demonstrated how easy it is to wish that your users validate assumptions, or that they find a baseline/intervention study a pleasant experience. Running these is far more challenging than we had thought, but set the direction and importance of why we wanted to work on this in the first place.

Current Thoughts

Having gone through this course now, I look at technologies from a different lens — I have realized how interfaces constantly fight for our attention, try to build habits around their product, and perhaps transform our routines without even realizing. Design intentionality and ethics play a huge role in behavior change!

For Next Time

Getting participants to participate in studies sometimes gets difficult. Seeing your project be completely wrong from its original assumptions turns out to feels unexpected. Nevertheless, it helps your project become purposeful and intentional. I hope to explore more projects through the realm of Behavior Design and become a changemaker!